Drew surveyed the battles taking place around the perimeter of Sanctuary from the eyes of his undead crows that circled lazily overhead. He rerouted his undead ground-based minions from areas that were currently clear of any incoming threats, and sent them to assist the living members of the defensive team that were currently engaged in combat.

The waves of beasts and monsters had arrived shortly after The System notification had indicated the beginning of the incursions that currently plagued New Earth. They were drawn to his simple community like moths to the flame after he’d placed the [Pillar of Civilization]. The shield that the Pillar generated prevented mana-based corruption of natural creatures, which were called beasts. It also warded off the spawning of monsters, which were coalesced mana given form.

However, that same warding that the shield provided, also acted as a lighthouse in the dark to everything that went bump in the night. Over time, the local monsters and beasts would become accustomed to the new shield and the attacks would cease. For the moment however, the shield had brought much unwanted attention to his small sphere of influence, which resulted in hordes of bad things unlike anything he’d previously seen.

His people were prepared though. When The Descent, or the apocalypse, had originally hit forty-five days ago, no one had been prepared for the waves of bad things that had come knocking. Now though, his people were in a much better place power-wise. Most living citizens of Sanctuary were around level eighteen or twenty in either their class or profession, sometimes even both, which gave them a much better foundation upon which to stand.

It had been three hours of constant warfare so far, and the tides of darkness that wished to kill his people showed no signs of ebbing, but there hadn’t been any casualties… yet. The citizens had trained and leveled up quickly over the last few weeks, and the results were speaking for themselves. Piles of monster and beast corpses littered the battlefield as his people fought valiantly against the horrors at their doorstep.

Three hours of constant fighting was a very long time though, even with the drastically increased stats of his people. The living citizens were beginning to tire, and tired people would mean mistakes, mistakes meant death in this new world.

Drew was focusing intensely on the battlefield, viewing everything from a bird’s eye view, literally. As the people tired or started to become endangered, he’d send his undead minions to assist and help turn the battles in the defender’s favor. He would have loved to join the frontlines, carving through the enemies with his sword and spells, but Sanctuary was being hounded from all sides.

While Drew could theoretically command his minions and battle simultaneously, it wasn’t easy. Commanding his full army of undead while he fought was a different story entirely, it just wasn’t possible currently. His mental attribute points just weren’t high enough for that level of complexity yet. Protecting the community by having a fast response time with his minions was a better use of his time.

As he continued to watch the evolving battlefield, it became increasingly clear that he’d need to swap out teams. He sent a series of complex commands to his minions to begin the process. Drew had known this fight was going to be based on endurance due to the sheer number of creatures coming to attack, and thus formed two separate defensive teams.

Team one was the defending members caught up in battle that were tiring out, team two was on standby to swap out. Horns sounded from the watchtowers and some of his undead crows landed upon the shoulders of squad leaders, letting them know to prepare to swap.

Team two rushed outward from behind the safety of the walls to reinforce their brethren. Once the squads of the replenishment forces arrived, team one squads withdrew to safety. Perfectly executed, just like clockwork. The sounds of battle quickly picked back up, and Drew refocused his attention on the new and fresh squads.

The exhausted squads of team one collapsed near the center of town, just plopping down on the ground like thrown sacks of potatoes. The support team was ready for their new arrivals, and quickly brought hot food and water to various squads, and the healers quickly got to work fixing any injuries the squad members had taken during their three-hour shift.

The support team mainly consisted of children who were very young, the elderly, and people with levels deemed too low to safely provide combat help. Many of these people were from the original town, having been kidnapped and held by the previous town council. Now, many of them were thankful for their newfound freedom, and scurried between squads to provide assistance.

Sanctuary did not have a huge population, only counting one hundred and forty-seven living citizens, but there were enough people now that Drew had felt comfortable keeping the kids away from the frontlines. Originally, within the first few days of The Descent, kids used to be required to help out. Normally that meant dragging the wounded back to the medical area, sadly that had resulted in the death of one child, Daniel.

The kid had died while pulling his wounded mother to safety, a bird had dive-bombed him and sent its beak right through his temple, ending his young fifteen year-old life quickly. Drew was lucky that Daniel’s soul hadn’t departed for the afterlife by the time he’d gotten to the kiddo. Drew was able to raise Daniel as a Soulflame, an undead whose soul was bound to the original body.

While it was morbid from a certain point of view, both Daniel and his mother were incredibly grateful to Drew for his assistance. Daniel was a squad leader in team two, having leveled his class to twenty-one. He was also the only child that was on the frontlines at all.

The System and its rules were still a mystery to Drew, and while much of it came across similar to video games, there were a lot of elements that made little to no sense. Kids were a prime example, some could gain a class at the age of fourteen, others had to wait until sixteen, and no one had any answers as to why that happened. It was just System Fuckery, as Drew had come to call it.

The current goal of the battle was to survive until daybreak. This wasn’t a goal that The System had placed, but rather it was the time in which Sanctuary would be given a respite in the form of reinforcements. Drew’s official profession was Baleful Warden, it was a job that was far more complex that being a farmer or construction worker.

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As a Baleful Warden, he was under the employ of Raynalyr, otherwise known as The Baleful Lady, or as most people in the multiverse knew her as, The Primordial of Death. All of which were super scary titles, and many people in the multiverse both respected and feared her greatly. A fact that Drew found highly humorous, as he’d previously enjoyed hot cocoa with her during his job interview.

For a being so powerful that even the combined might of all lower gods wouldn’t even scratch her, she was incredibly down to earth and kind. As far as bosses went, Drew had lucked out big time. His previous actions had garnered her attention, and she made him a job offer he couldn’t refuse, huge stat gains and powerful abilities in return for helping the souls of the lost and damned move on into the afterlife.

That job also came with some sweet benefits as well, unfortunately there was no dental plan. The major benefit being that Drew was kind of a big deal, and Baleful Wardens were extremely rare. This rarity had to do with the expense The Baleful Lady subjected herself to in order to offer him the position. As far as cosmic powers that he knew nothing about went, it was supposedly a vast expenditure.

Thus, to protect her investment, The Baleful Lady was sending reinforcements to aid Drew’s settlement of Sanctuary. The defenders just needed to hold out until morning, at which point the calvary would arrive. Those reinforcements would have no issue protecting the community, which would free up most of his people to do other things. The reinforcements wouldn’t fix every problem however.

The Pillar had caused one issue, but as long as Sanctuary could hold on until dawn, they’d be fine. But that wasn’t the only problem they were facing. No, not at all. The real issue was the incursions, which were System sanctioned invasions. According to The Baleful Lady, it was a rather rare event, and there wasn’t an easy solution.

Columns of colored lights descended from the heavens, each were differently colored and easily viewable from long distances away. The lights remained suspended in mid-air, showing Earth’s native citizens where the incursions were. Each column represented a Gate, a kind of portal from another world within the vast multiverse.

Some of the invaders had come to create peaceful relationships, alliances, and trade agreements with the people of Earth, but not all forces in the multiverse were so benevolent. Many had likely come to claim the planet and its resources for their own, or had come to enslave humanity, or worse… slaughter them for experience points.

The Baleful Lady was currently investigating the nearby incursions to try and determine the purpose of each invading force, and Drew was trying to wait patiently while the Primordial did her work. The real kick in the balls was the fact that Humanity as a whole was at a pretty major disadvantage, the humans on Earth had begun The Descent in F Grade, while the rest of the multiverse began life in E Grade.

This meant that the invading forces would be a whole Grade higher than the humans on Earth, and that’s only if the invading forces had sent their bottom of the barrel members of society to invade. Chances were high that the invaders included beings of an even higher Grade, D or possibly even C Grade powerhouses to lead the invasions.

To say that the situation looked grim would have been a massive understatement. To combat the issue, and give Drew and his community a fighting chance, The Baleful Lady had come up with a solution. Once members of The Lady’s Cadre reinforced Sanctuary, Drew, his wife Amber, their German Shepherd Freya, and Spock, would be transported to the Halls of Reflection, The Lady’s personal realm.

Once they were in The Halls of Reflection, Drew’s small group would be utilizing one of The Lady’s training dungeons. The dungeons were a fast way to quickly gain experience points, but not without risk. The training dungeons were used by low-leveled members of The Lady’s Cadre to boost their skills, survival, and levels, but Drew had a feeling it wouldn’t be a cakewalk. Everything in this new reality had an element of risk vs. reward. The higher the risk, the greater the reward. So, even though the dungeon would be for his benefit, he was feeling anxiety regarding its dangers.

That was what he thought anyways, he didn’t know for certain how dangerous it would be, as Drew had very little time to discuss it with the Primordial before being forced to defend Sanctuary.

Drew suddenly felt a slight tingling sensation within his mind while he was focused on the battles.

“Champion, there are strong monsters currently approaching your settlement.” The Baleful Lady said.

As a goddess, she had the power to reach out through the vast cosmos of the multiverse and speak directly with him. Drew had the ability to reply and reach out to her as well, but that had more to do with his position as her direct subordinate rather than any vast cosmic power on his end.

“More Goblins? How strong are we talking about?” Drew quickly asked.

“No, they’re not Goblins, and they are fairly strong compared to your warriors, you may need to intervene.”

“They’re higher level than my people?”

“They’re Peak F Grade and low E Grade, so around the same level or slightly higher, but you know E Grade represents a large jump in power.” The Lady replied.

“I’m not confident in my ability to command so many minions while also fighting off strong enemies from all sides. What type of monsters are they?”

“Are any of your people necromancers as well, or do they have leadership-based classes? The monsters are approaching from the Northeast of your location, I recommend you focus your efforts there. The composition appears to be Kobolds and Earth Golems.”

“Kobolds and golems huh? Are they similar to the ones depicted in fiction? None of my aerial scouts have reported movement in that direction… and no, I’m the only necromancer so far, most of my people haven’t evolved to E Grade yet.”

“That’s unfortunate, if there were other necromancers you could have lessened your burden by assigning your minions to them. I’m not certain what fictions you’re speaking of, as I’m not familiar with your planet. Your scouts cannot see them yet, but they are moving quickly and will be arriving shortly.” The Lady replied.

Drew scratched his chin as he thought about the situation. If the monsters were only coming from one direction, he could pull the elite team that consisted of Amber, Freya, Beefcake, Mark, Miranda, and his mother, and Drew could lead them against the stronger forces. It would leave the other sides of Sanctuary weakened for a short while though…

“Thank you for the heads-up. I could pull my stronger forces and lead the defense in the Northeast if the other directions won’t be overwhelmed. Are the other directions around Sanctuary relatively clear?” Drew asked.

“Sanctuary? An apt name indeed. Yes, the incoming beasts from the surrounding areas seem to be comparable or slightly less in quantity to what your forces are currently facing.”

“Good, I didn’t want to force the resting team back to duty yet, any updates on the incursions?”

“Yes, but there’s no need to concern yourself with them at the moment. We can discuss it after the waves.”

“Okay, sounds good. Thanks again!”

Drew ended the communication with The Baleful Lady.

Why do I feel more concerned now that she told me not to concern myself with them? Drew considered this thought briefly before focusing on the task at hand. He sent orders to his murder of crows to flood towards the Northeast. He needed to know how much time he had.

She was right, they’re coming in hard and fast.